CHENNAI: Finding the judgment of the trial court to be “perverse”, the Madras HC has reversed the acquittal of seven persons and sentenced them to double life imprisonment in a murder case.
Holding that the prosecution has proved the charges beyond doubt, the bench sentenced Ramesh, Pandu alias Pandurangan, Sathish alias Sathishkumar, Prakash, Suresh, Ravi alias Pillakka Ravi and Kutti alias Dillibabu to double life imprisonment along with a fine of Rs 1,000 each for criminal conspiracy and murder.
Ramesh, Prakash, Pandurangan and Sathish are brothers. The seven were also sentenced to six months imprisonment under Section 147, one year under Section 148 and five months under Section 448 r/w 149 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for rioting with deadly weapons and trespassing into a house. However, the bench ordered the sentences to run concurrently.
The bench also confirmed the acquittal of Mariamma and Chitra who were the convicts’ relatives. One of the accused, Siva, passed away while the court split up the case against Sekar alias Dhanasekar who had gone absconding.
The orders were passed on the appeals filed by the prosecution and the mother of the victim Siva, an autorickshaw driver, who was hacked to death by the accused along with others under the Ashok Nagar police station limits on June 3, 2012, due to previous enmity.
As many as 11 persons, including the convicted seven men, had assaulted him with weapons while he was inside his house before dragging him on to the road where they attacked him, inflicting 33 cut injuries on vital parts of his body.
The XIX Additional Sessions Court acquitted them on April 26, 2018, and “erroneously disbelieved” the eyewitness account of the wife and mother of the victim, the bench said.